Functional & buzzworthy

There are differences between most advertising-type of projects on one hand, and product-design-type of projects on the other hand. What are the best takeaways from both?

After working with both types for 15+ years I believe that some of the differences make sense, but a lot of them don’t - they are just old norms that limit us in whatever we are creating. To me, there are some solid takeaways from both type of work that often can be cross-applied and benefit any creative project.

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Learning from the best ADVERTISING and BRANDING we should strive for:

The Idea. The best idea is king and the rest most follow.
Relevance. It’s gotta make sense and have a purpose. Otherwise, who will bother?
Execution. There’s no excuse not to make it flawless. But we… No buts - it’s ready when it’s perfect.
Impact. We need to plan for how to spread the word. And maybe we can make a thing that makes a hell of a splash when we drop it? But still:
Nice. Let’s be smart and fun rather than loud and annoying.
Tonality and Style. Our stuff needs to feel alive and unique, have a personality and look stunning.
Feeling it? We can seldom rely only on communicating rational benefits, we also need to find and hit the emotional incentives related to our thing.
Break patterns, damn it.

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And from the best PRODUCT DESIGN and classic DESIGN THINKING we find:

Follow patterns, for gods sake.
One problem, one solution. Let’s focus on solving the one main problem, the rest can wait.
Holistic view. Heads up people, there is more happening here than the actual app/service/whatever.
Empathy. If we don’t understand how the users feels and acts, we can’t create the best solution for them.
Test test test. And in the real context, not behind your own desk.
Drafts and iterations. Rome wasn't built in one sprint you know.
Business goals. Because nothing is for free.
Measure. How else will we recognize failure and success?

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Are there contradictions here? Not necessarily, it is all about the balance. Of course we should follow established patterns in our digital products, why confuse people? But let’s keep looking for the right place and time where we could break the conventions and add something unique. And let’s make crappy first drafts but still strive for flawlessness in the end product. We just need to make sure that we polish the right solution and not a turd that we should have left along the way. All in all:

Why settle for less than stuff that are functional and easy to understand, yet unique and shiny?